


Mad

by slashmania



Series: 50 Thousand Words (from October to December!) [15]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M, Smoking, a reinterpretation of the 'I'm impressed Mr. Eames' scene, hiding a relationship!, mad - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:55:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21694978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmania/pseuds/slashmania
Summary: Arthur had found his way to the roof. He was already smoking a cigarette when he heard someone attempting to approach him quietly.“If you’re here to try and fight me can I at least finish smoking this cigarette first?”“I’m not here to fight you on a roof like this is some terrible crime drama—I’m here to bum a cigarette so we can talk.”
Relationships: Arthur/Eames (Inception)
Series: 50 Thousand Words (from October to December!) [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1503791
Kudos: 38





	Mad

**Author's Note:**

> Day 15: Mad  
> 2,626 words

“Okay, what in the fuck is up with this _Thank you so much for your condescension, Arthur_ bullshit?!”

“That isn’t what I said and you _know it_ , Arthur!”

“Um, guys how about you cool it down a little,” Cobb began to say, getting in the middle of Arthur and Eames’s sudden argument.

“Well I wasn’t being condescending, either!”

In the past, Arthur and Eames could and would bicker. But this seemed to be coming out of nowhere!

“ _Well I’m impressed, Mr. Eames_ — really, that doesn’t seem a tad condescending after I’d just outlined the plan?”

“I was trying to give you a compliment, Eames!”

“Compliments don’t usually sound so awful, Arthur!”

Arthur’s eyes narrowed, but he stood his ground, not willing to get right into Eames’s face just yet. He could take some criticism. He _could._ Just so long as it was fucking true!

“I’m going to go take a break because I’m getting angry.”

Then Arthur turned and left the entire team, Saito included, in the warehouse so he could go cool off.

When Arthur was gone, everyone turned to Eames and stared.

Yusuf was the one who had the balls to say, “Well, what the fuck was that supposed to be about?”

Eames was mature enough to realize that having an argument with Arthur in front of the rest of the team sort of invalidated his right to tell any of them to stay out of his business with Arthur.

“I would rather not have a conversation with everyone about this. But I do apologize to all of you.”

Eames also left and the remaining team plus Saito got to look at each other in silence.

Yusuf said, “Now I’m kind of pissed that my question didn’t get answered.”

“Let’s not spread more anger around,” Cobb was saying, hands outstretched like he could somehow sense the rising aggression in the air and was attempted to push it back to the floor.

“Should we go after one of them, or choose someone to go to each one?” Ariadne looked from man to man, and then frowned powerfully at them. “Look, I get that I end up becoming involved in all sorts of things on this team. I get to learn all sorts of stuff, and that’s wonderful, but I can’t and won’t split myself in two just to handle this. I’m having enough trouble handling _your_ bullshit, Cobb.”

Cobb wasn’t pleased to be called out when Arthur and Eames had been the previous focus.

“Let’s draw straws,” Yusuf finally said, offering to look for something that could be used.

Saito sighed, “It is probably best that we do not get involved at all.”

And that actually sounded like the best idea.

* * *

Arthur had found his way to the roof. He was already smoking a cigarette when he heard someone attempting to approach him quietly.

“If you’re here to try and fight me can I at least finish smoking this cigarette first?”

“I’m not here to fight you on a roof like this is some terrible crime drama—I’m here to bum a cigarette so we can talk.”

Arthur tossed his pack of cigarettes to Eames, who caught them with a bemused expression on his face. Eames opened the pack, selected a cigarette, closed it, and then tossed it back to Arthur.

“Do you have something to light it with?” Arthur said, his own lit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

“I left my matches downstairs and I doubt that our merry inception team will enjoy me stumbling back down there just to get them.”

“If you knew that you were going to come after me, why didn’t you bring the matches along?”

“How could I tell you were going to be smoking? Or that you were going to be out on the roof for that matter? If you’re willing to share the lighter, I’ll happily borrow it from you.”

Then Eames approached Arthur and said, “Or I can just light mine with your own. What do you say to getting up close and personal?”

Arthur snorted and took a puff off of his. “Sure, let’s save matches and lighter fluid.”

Eames held his own cigarette between his lips, the long cylinder of wrapped tobacco at just the right angle to touch the burning tip of Arthur’s own. The forger took a long drag off his cigarette, the tip catching fire from Arthur’s, and glowing cherry red as Eames sucked harder.

Eames took a half-step away, getting out of Arthur’s personal space so he could exhale a nice cloud of smoke.

“Okay we’ve gone without arguing just to light my cigarette, I’d call it a success but I’m not sure what ground we’re on.”

Arthur shrugged. “We’re on the same ground as usual, Eames.”

“Did you really mean it? That you were impressed?”

“I wouldn’t have said it otherwise, Eames. You know me better than that.”

“But why did you say it that way?”

“Because everyone thinks we hate each other, and god forbid we offer kindness or respect, right?”

“I suppose it sometimes sounds that way, doesn’t it, love?”

They were now standing, side by side, smoking in peace.

“You really do make me feel mad when you start trying to make all my ideas sound impossible.”

“And you make me crazy when you try to pick a fight right in front of everyone else. It’s not a nice thing to do. We’re flying under the radar like this, Eames. I don’t want to have to deal with Cobb’s little _don’t fall in love with your dreamshare team mate_ talk because even if you’ve never experienced it, I’ve seen the looks he’s shot us recently. Either he really really wants to make sure he gets home against all odds and believes we might fuck it up, or seeing people who might fall in love gives him acid reflux now.”

Eames nodded thoughtfully. “The man’s got to cut back on his coffee and watching us maybe fall in love if its giving him acid reflux. I should go to the shops and pick up some of those mint flavored antacids he likes.”

“Cobb will question how you know those are his favorite if you’ve never seen them before.”

“I’ve seen them.”

“Yes, you’ve seen them in my shopping when we ran into each other earlier this week. We made a deal that no one would figure out were doing _this.”_

“You put a lot of emphasis on that word, you know. Almost like its italicized or something. Do you feel that it needs the extra emphasis or do you still not want to put a name to it until this job is over and done with?”

Arthur sighed and elbowed Eames. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t ruin our cigarette break with a talk about our relationship, Eames. I like what we have. I enjoy it a lot. But I really don’t want to have to talk to anyone else on the team about this. I also don’t want it to affect the job. This has to work. I need Cobb to be able to go back home to his kids so he can most likely quit dreamshare, retire, and leave me free to become your partner.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan, Arthur. We just have to make sure that the inception of Robert Fischer is successful.”

“And if we keep butting heads in there, it’s not going to be successful. So let’s promise to make this the last time we almost fight during this job.”

Eames found this funny and began listing other things they regularly fought about because while they were compatible as hell, they also still had pet peeves.

“Like when you take too long in the shower because you’re a secret hedonist?”

“It is not as bad as when you make sure I have to ask the hotel maid for another load of towels when you visit— honestly, what in the hell are you doing with them, stopping up the drain to have a bath? Soaking up some kind of spill in every room with a sink?”

“You’re also really terrible at pronouncing things the proper way. Say it with me, love: Yusuf! Yoo-sef! He didn’t say anything before but when you said his name wrong it kind of hurt his feelings. Oh, and Saito isn’t pronounced Say-Toe. It’s more like Sigh-Toe.”

Though Eames was addressing something that Arthur was kind of embarrassed about, Arthur couldn’t hold back his smile over Eames’s lesson in pronunciation. “God, you’re such a nitpick! I’ll apologize to both Yusuf and Saito for mangling their names with my stupid American tongue. Would you like that?”

This caught Eames’s attention. “I’m interested in your stupid American tongue. I can think of a few lessons I could give it. For all you know it may just need some limbering up!”

Arthur looked at his cigarette, almost burned down to the filter and sighed. He dropped it on the ground and stepped on it to crush the ember, putting it out. “Trust you to take pronunciation lessons and make them into a make out session. Do you want to make out a little before we go back to pretending to not like each other?”

“I want to make out with you a lot, love.” Eames said, his smile suddenly impish. He also stubbed out his cigarette and reached for Arthur, finding the point man to be ready and willing to start kissing.

Arthur pressed his body against Eames’s, wrapped his arms around the man and met Eames’s in a kiss. They were just electric! It was something that Eames and Arthur really excelled at. Whether one took into account that Eames has a mouth to die for or that Arthur was a generous lover, both worked well together.

They parted briefly and couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Do you think we could get away with something else while we’re up here or have we wasted our time?”

“We never waste time when we’re together,” Arthur answered. “We’re actually pretty good at keeping each other on track. It’s kind of the reason why we do so well together, aside from how our positions complement each other so well.”

Eames rested his head against Arthur’s shoulder and sighed. “Yes, trust me to fall in love with a man who talks about our working relationship when I offer something a little more explicit on a rooftop.”

They heard a noise and parted regretfully.

“You know the drill,” Arthur said in a whisper to Eames before saying in a louder voice. “- look, I’m sorry I said that they way I did. That really was a great idea and I shouldn’t have been so condescending to you.”

Familiar with this drill, Eames responded in kind. “I’m just glad I was able to find you up here so I could have the chance to apologize as well. It wasn’t fair of me to say what I said either. I hope that we’ll do a little better as the job continues.”

“It’s a very stressful job, but I’ll work harder on my attitude,” Arthur said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. And since he was turned towards the door that lead back down to the warehouse, he had the perfect view of poor Yusuf carefully opening the door a crack and peaking out at them.

Pretending that he hadn’t seen him there, Arthur shook hands with Eames, who also noticed Yusuf’s arrival too. “Thanks for chatting with me about it. And thanks for letting me chat with you over a cigarette.”

Yusuf finally opened the door all the way and said in a loud voice. “Look, I didn’t want to bother you...but I originally thought that only one of you would be up here, so I guess I’m glad I found you both? This is what I get for drawing the short straw.” Yusuf forced himself to smile and then assessed the situation once more. No broken bones, no blood, and neither of the men were holding the other at gunpoint. So it was good!

Arthur smiled and said, “Thanks for checking up on us, Yusuf.” He nailed the pronunciation and noticed how Yusuf’s eyes widened when he heard it. It really was a good thing to remember how to pronounce this man’s name properly; he was going to be creating the compound that would allow the whole team to go down three levels, after all.

Eames smiled a private smile when he noticed the positive exchange between Arthur and Yusuf. It would be very nice one day to be more open with their relationship, but it just wasn’t right now. One day they would be able to go on dates while on the job. Kiss on the job, though not have to hide up on a roof to do it.

Yes, that would be very nice. They could still share cigarettes, joke and tease each other, but they would have to be careful that they not allow any of their feelings, personal or working, get in the way of the job’s success. Eames was with Arthur on that one hundred percent!

He followed Arthur down the stairs that lead from the rooftop to the inside of the warehouse, and rather than play out their apologies all over again for the rest of the group, they simply separated to work on different parts of the project.

Eames sat at his own desk and began to look through the file folder Arthur had presented him with, then began examining his own notes about Browning, though he didn’t really have to at the moment. What could there be lurking in this man’s relationship with either Robert or Maurice? His research and bit in the field had told him plenty about the state of the company and the relationships between each man, but there was something else. Maybe he would ask Arthur about it later on.

From across the room Eames could see where Arthur also sat, busying himself in his own work, opening his laptop and going through additional information.

Arthur was focused on his task and didn’t even look up though he felt Eames’s eyes on him. To be honest he was aware that the other members of the team were giving both him and Eames a wide berth. It wouldn’t be until either Arthur or Eames left the room again that Yusuf would give them more information than the thumbs up Yusuf thought neither Arthur nor Eames noticed when every member of the team turned to look in their direction once they reentered the room.

Arthur and Eames would have to act like the trouble had been resolved. Thankfully it had been resolved, but the rest of the team wouldn’t know about how it had been resolved until later. Much later. Maybe even years later depending on how the job went or if anyone died (hopefully not).

Arthur could imagine the disbelief on Cobb’s face though Arthur had been clear about the type of warnings the man would give about love. He was almost certain that Ariadne would know if she wasn’t so busy dealing with Cobb’s bullshit. And he wasn’t so sure about everyone else. Saito was a stranger. Yusuf knew Eames best, Arthur supposed, so maybe the chemist would figure something of it out.

But those were all things that could be dealt with at another time. Worries Arthur would shelve just to deal with the most important things at the moment. The job couldn’t fail. Cobb had to go home. Robert Fischer would break up his father’s company or Arthur would eat his tie.

It was a particularly ugly tie that he had to borrow from Eames.


End file.
